The Sunday Before Christmas
by Lettie.Piper
Summary: It's the Sunday before Christmas and everything is peaceful in the Beilschmidt household. Well that's a bit of a lie as Gilbert is trying to 'enchant' Lovino Vargas into smiling or even laughing at him. Lovino becomes conflicted, does he hate this annoying bastard or... is he ok with him?


It's the Sunday before Christmas; everything was sparkling white outside the Beilschmidt house. When the temperature started to drop dramatically a week earlier, everyone in Germany knew it was definitely going to be a white Christmas this year. Although it was freezing outside, all homes were lit up and incredibly warm on the inside. This year, Ludwig decided it was his turn to host the Christmas party! On the Friday before Christmas, the Vargas brothers were the first to arrive, mainly to help cook the Christmas treats! Arthur offered to help but Ludwig politely declined, because everyone knows that he can't really cook. Anything.

Today on Sunday, Feliciano and Ludwig decided to go do some Christmas shopping for the party, leaving Lovino, Gilbert, Elias and Roderich to relax for awhile. Lovino lay on the sofa, while reading with complete focus on his book. He heard laughing come from the kitchen.

"Ludwig you dog Kesesese!" Gilbert cackled.

"Ugh, he better not be doing anything stupid, with Feli" Lovino muttered. Gilbert walked into the living room and he noticed Lovino pulling a frown whilst reading. He thought maybe he could try and make him smile for once. He had never seen Lovino smile before anyway so it'd be an AWESOMELY fun experience!

"Ciao Lovino!" Gilbert greeted. Lovino ignored him. He got a little annoyed by this. 'Is Lovino ignoring me? Or maybe he just did not hear him? He does look pretty focused on that book' he thought. He tried to get his attention again. "Yo Lovino!" Lovino moved his head closer to the book, ignoring him again. 'Is he always this sour? No wonder Feliciano sometimes calls him a sour lemon in Italian!' Gilbert thought to himself. He decided to be persistent in his mission, he moved closer to Lovino resting his elbows on the sofa. "Hey Lovino!" 'He must've heard me this time!' he thought to himself. Lovino shuffled away from Gilbert, his curl bouncing along. 'What a weird curl' Gilbert thought. 'It kind of looked like Feliciano's...' He shook his head slightly dismissing the thought and continued to harass Lovino.

It was obvious Lovino wanted nothing to do with Gilbert. 'Of all the people to want to talk to me, it had to be this bastard.' Lovino thought. Gilbert was starting to get impatient. 'Why the heck is he ignoring me?!' He thought. He continued to try and get Lovino's attention, determined to be acknowledged.

"Lovino! ..." Lovino ignored him. "Lovino." Gilbert poked his head. Lovino shuffled away. "Lovinooooo!" Gilbert nudged Lovino. But Lovino continued to read and ignore Gilbert. "Lovino. Lovino. Lovino. Lovino. Lovino. Lovino..." Each time Gilbert said Lovino's name he poked him in the head. This happened about 42 times before Lovino lost his shit.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT YOU STUPID BASTARD?!" He shouted. This startled Gilbert, he had thought that he wasn't going to get a word out of him. In fact Lovino looked quite frightening when he was angry. Gilbert spaced out a little, but he snapped out of it and grinned.

"Hey there, good lookin'" it was an awful attempt at making Lovino laugh but, what else could he do. It was the first thing to pop into his head.

"Piss off." Lovino hissed. Gilbert was such an idiot. Lovino didn't know how to feel. Angry, annoyed, embarrassed? 'He is such a bastard. But he is so enthusiastic... Like Antonio...' Lovino thought. 'There really is a huge contrast between us both.' A smile prickled up Lovino's face. As much as he tried to hide it Gilbert saw it.

"Ahhh I knew you could smile!" Gilbert laughed.

"I said piss off Gilbert." Lovino grumbled, softening up a little. 'Why won't he just leave? It's not like he doesn't have anything better to do.' Lovino thought, pulling a frown.

"Not until you smile for me." He was still grinning. It was oddly attractive. Lovino really didn't want to smile for him. He disliked Ludwig, but was _mostly_ neutral his family. The way Gilbert persisted to make him smile or even laugh, stopped Lovino from saying anything too hurtful towards him. He scoffed.

"Keseseseseh" Gilbert laughed. 'Why the fuck is he laughing?' Lovino wondered, until he realised he was smiling a little. He pulled a neutral face and continued reading his book.

"Can you not?" Lovino asked. Gilbert stopped laughing, a surprised look on his face.

"Did you just…."Gilbert said. Lovino looked at him confused.

"What?" Lovino snapped. 'What in the world is wrong with him now? I swear these Germans are so weird.' he thought.

"Did you just make a reference?" Gilbert asked. 'He can't possibly have made a tumblr reference… Maybe, just maybe… Lovino is a tumblr addict… or at least a user.' Gil thought. Lovino looked at Gilbert with confusion and disgust.

"… What reference?" Lovino questioned. 'What the hell is he on about, a 'reference'? What could he possibly be talking about?' Lovino thought to himself.

"… Never mind." Gilbert mumbled. 'Apparently not... Then again maybe 'reference' wasn't the right word to use' he thought.

"Are you done German?" Lovino really wanted him to go. But at the same time... To stay as well… He was enjoying his company slightly.

"Well if you really want me to leave…" He got up off the sofa and shrugged. Gilbert thought maybe using reverse psychology would work…

"I do, piss off." It didn't work.

"Aww come on!" He jumped over the sofa and sat next to Lovino. "You can't really _not_ like **me** ! I'm too awesome!" Lovino could have slapped him for being so vain. Gilbert tried looking at the book Lovino was reading. Each time Gilbert leaned over Lovino shuffled to the side. "Come on you can't always be such a… an aspro limone..."

Lovino looked up from his book. Now he really couldn't hold it back, he started giggling so he covered up his face in the hopes that Gilbert wouldn't notice. But he did.

"YES!" Gilbert shouted. "The awesome **me** made you laugh awesomely!" Gilbert laughed triumphantly.

Lovino glared at him. 'How dare he make me laugh…' He thought. He sighed and looked up at him once again.

"I laughed there happy? If you're done, you can fuck off now." Lovino said monotonously. Gilbert pretended to gasp and put his hand on his chest.

"I'm hurt Lovino!" He joked. Gilbert started to laugh and Lovino scoffed at him. He had had enough of his idiocy, as entertaining as it was for Gilbert; it was getting increasingly annoying for Lovino. He felt like he was about to hit Gilbert on the chest with the book; then in walked in Roderich and Elias carrying in some Christmas decorations for the living room. Roderich was carrying a small box while Elias carried in 2 heavy looking ones.

"Guten Tag you two." Roderich said. He huffed as he dropped the box on Gilbert's lap. "Gott that was heavy." Gilbert looked unamused, until Elias pretended to slap their cousin's head. Gilbert started sniggering. "What's so funny?" Roderich asked them. Lovino sighed, annoyed at all the commotion.

"If you don't mind, I'm trying to read." Lovino hid his face in the book. The 3 Germanics turned to look at him. Elias walked towards the tree and set the boxes down beside it, letting out a sigh as he did so.

"If you don't like it, then why don't you leave, eh Lovino?" Gilbert laughed at him.

"For once, I agree with him. If you don't like this atmosphere, maybe it'd be better if you just left." Roderich sighed. He felt that although Lovino was right about Gilbert being loud (Although Lovino meant that they were all bothering him), it was still rude to say such things to the co-owners of the home. "In fact yes, leave now if you're unhappy!" He shooed him with his hand, pointing his nose up regally, like he always did. Lovino squinted at him menacingly.

"Um, the only reason I'm here is to make sure that you three, plus the gay bastard, don't corrupt my brother."

"Don'tcha mean 'fratello'? I thought you were Italian, kesesesesesese!" Gilbert smirked at him. Lovino pushed him off of the sofa. "Hey! What was that for?!"

"That was for being a bastardo, again." Gilbert shrugged, smiling like the silly idiot he was. Lovino rolled his eyes and continued reading.

"Yo, Lovi." Gilbert called. Roderich and Elias went and sat on the sofa beside them. Roderich turned on his phone to flick through his music list, while Elias grabbed his DS.

"What do you want, **now**?!" Lovino snapped, Roderich and Elias both lifted their heads. Gilbert lifted his arms up, submitting to his shouting.

"Uh, geez. I was just gonna say, if you're here to make sure Feli doesn't get corrupted then... surely you should be with them now?" Gilbert asked him. Lovino eyes widened. Gilbert had a point, that bastard was actually right!

"..."Lovino stopped reading and his brain began to whir. Roderich looked at Gilbert worriedly.

"Are you sure, that was the right thing to ask him?" Gilbert grinned at him.

"Oh, please what's he going to do, get up and leave to go find the-"

"That's exactly what I'm going to do." Lovino immediately got up and headed for the entrance. The 3 Germans looked at each other with alarm and got up also, racing to stop him. They all knew about how Ludwig felt about Feliciano and they all wanted him to spend time with him. Especially Gilbert, seeing as he believed they would be "so awesome" together.

"Lovino, wait!" Gilbert grabbed his arm. The Italian wriggled his arm free and pushed him.

"WHAT?! I'm going to find my brother and nothing any of you say or do will change my-" Elias grabbed Lovino by the shoulders and lifted him up, frowning at him. The Italian squirmed, looking at Roderich, his eyes crying for help. The German only shook his head worriedly. "Let go of me, you bastard!" Gilbert tapped on Elias' shoulders, indicating that they carry him to the living room. Elias nodded and put Lovino down. "Thank yo-" Elias grabbed his arms. "H-hey!" Gilbert grabbed Lovino's legs and the two Germans carried Lovino into the living room.

"This feels _so_ wrong." Roderich mumbled. Lovino, squirming under their grip, attempted to free himself so that he could grab his coat and make it to the door. "Oh dear..."

"Let me **GO** you jerks! I need to go find my fra-" They flung him onto the sofa. Lovino sat up and rubbed his back. "What gives?! **You're** the one who put the idea into my head!" Gilbert leaned over Lovino, towering above him and growled at him.

"You idiot!" He looked furious with him. They both stared at each other angrily. Lovino cowered slightly sinking into the sofa but he kept staring back at him.. "Do you even know you're way around here?!" Gilbert shouted at him. Elias and Roderich looked at each other. Gilbert was being a little harsh, he didn't need to shout at Lovino, but then again it was probably the only way he'd listen to reason. "What if you got fucking lost, huh? It's cold out there and you would never find your way back anyway!" Lovino broke his gaze from Gilbert's. He was right, Lovino never visited Germany, so he didn't actually know where to find anything. "You know I'm right don't you? So, why don't you calm your fucking anger against my brother, who has done _nothing_ to you and stay sitting where you are?!" Roderich placed his hand on Gilbert's shoulder.

"Don't you think you're being a little too harsh on him, Gilbert?"

Gilbert looked at Roderich worriedly and took his arm pulling him to the kitchen. Gilbert nodded towards the kitchen as he looked at Elias, who understood and followed. Elias stayed at the kitchen doorway to keep an eye on Romano while he listened to his brother and cousin talk.  
"I was.. I know I was being harsh."  
"Wait, I'm confused, you knew you were being harsh and yet you still shouted at him?"  
"Yeah.." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Heh I uh... I really want Lud and Feli to talk. I hope Lud is man enough to say something, heh heh.." Gilbert laughed a little.  
Roderich rolled his eyes as he headed to the fridge.  
"He doesn't need to be a man to do that you know" He stated.  
"Okay fine he needs guts at least." Gilbert sighed a little. "Yo, Lovi!" Gilvert shouted. He walked into the living room Elias joining him. Gilbert sat next to Lovino and Elias sat on the other sofa, watching them.Lovino looked hurt, he avoided Gilbert's gaze.  
"Hey I'm uh.. Sorry for you know, shouting but you've got to leave them alone." Lovino didn't reply. He only stared at the floor. "I know it was wrong to shout at you, but you really could have walked to your death or something horribly not-awesome resembling that."  
"You didn't have to be a bastard about it though."  
"I know, I'm sorry.." Lovino glared at Gilbert before continuing.  
"It's fine." Gilbert smiled at him.

"So we cool?" Gilbert asked him. Lovino looked at him out of the corner of his eyes and scoffed.

"Yeah, yeah we're cool." Gilbert grinned and sat next to Lovino, jabbering on.


End file.
